We have a unique model that connects school students in the UK and rural India through our two established education programmes: Yearn to Learn in India and The ROAR Challenge in the UK. In West Bengal, India, where 46% of 10-year-olds are at least 3 years behind their expected reading level, RISE runs a literacy intervention programme called Yearn to Learn, which is free of cost to children most
at risk of dropping out of school. The purpose of the Yearn to Learn programme is:
• to improve literacy rates and increase school retention
• to empower students to develop skills and have higher aspirations
In the UK, runs a programme that empowers secondary school students by exposing them to the experience of setting up their own social enterprise and meeting the children they are helping in rural India over video-conference. The ROAR (Reach Out And Rise) Challenge, does this by:
• developing key skills for employability
• actively builds students’ understanding of the social sector and business world. Survival Week is RISE's exciting campaign to raise funds and awareness for students in rural India on our Yearn to Learn programme. It's a simple concept - for one week you give up an item you consider essential, compete with friends and colleagues, make a donation to RISE at www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/survivalweek, and celebrate your successes. It's a fun and engaging initiative, an opportunity to bond with your family/friends/team, take on a personal challenge, all the while enabling access to literacy education for hundreds of students in rural India.
